Xiaomi notes coronavirus Ecuador impact year 2020: the technological has reduced its quarterly net profit by 7,2%
The technology firm Xiaomi has felt the impact of coronavirus on its results for the second quarter of 2020: its net profit has fallen by 7.2% compared to the previous year, obtaining 414 million euros (3.370 million yuan), according to data provided by the company.
While from January to March the Chinese brand managed to grow to double digits —10.6% more year— on-year-it is now when the pandemic has been reflected in its figures.
As for its total revenues, the firm did improve compared to the same period last year, with an increase of 3.1%, reaching 6,577. 4 million euros (53,540 million yuan).
"During the first half of 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19 and the global uncertainty situation, Xiaomi's highly diversified business ecosystem has demonstrated its resilience: both from the perspective of our adjusted revenues and profits, as well as our unstoppable operational expansion," the company said in a statement.
In the presentation of the results of Xiaomi from January to March, its founder and CEO, Lei Jun, already warned that the effects of the pandemic would be noticed in the next cycle, from April to June.
Xiaomi notes coronavirus Ecuador impact year 2020
At the time, he also announced that his activity was returning to normal and returning to normal production levels.
Xiaomi has distributed more than 1 out of 3 mobile phones in Spain
In the Spanish market Xiaomi enjoys good health. For 6 months, the brand is the largest distributor of smartphones, ahead of competitors such as Samsung and Huawei.
China has maintained that position in the second quarter, according to data from the consulting firm Canalys cited by the firm. Thus, its market share from April to June is 36.8%. This means that, by sales to distributors, Xiaomi has placed more than 1 out of 3 mobile phones in Spain.
And according to those same data, that means that brand shipments have grown 151% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Xiaomi continues to occupy the fourth position in terms of market share, with 12.4% of sales to distributors.
End of Xiaomi notes coronavirus Ecuador impact year 2020
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They create a new alternative mask to the N95: it can last more than 12 hours, sterilized, reused and can last more than 10 years
When the 2003 SARS outbreak hit the city of Toronto, Canadian health authorities expressed concern about N95 masks, one of the safest models to prevent the spread of the unknown disease, but with several secondary problems.
The doctors claimed that the breathing filters were uncomfortable to withstand long hours of work, causing headaches and suffering from shortness of breath after their shifts. Over time, even after the outbreak subsided, several governments issued reports against the model arguing that they should be redesigned for future epidemics. No one thought the risk of a global pandemic was real, so the project and its 28 institutional recommendations fell asleep in a drawer.
It is now well known that the situation could not have changed any more, and two scientists have dusted the old documents.
Tobias Franoszek and Natasha Duwin, co-founders of the mask manufacturer Octo Safety Devices, recovered the work on the N95 and prepared its second version, one that meets the standards of quality then vilified, but with all the guarantees of safety offered by the original model.
"N95 masks and mask technology have not changed much in recent years," recognizes Franoszek, who has already christened the new mask as Octo Respirator Mask, or ORM. 3 years ago, long before the appearance of COVID-19, Franoszek and Duwin began to explore alternatives for its manufacture, acquiring the rights to the old design and thinking about how to remodel it. The pandemic has only accelerated its workload.
Unlike the N95, the ORM is designed to be reusable and can be sterilized with boiling water; also its antimicrobial filter. The process, advertisers announce, can be repeated dozens of times for each mask, so if someone uses it infrequently —say, for example, to go to the supermarket once a week-it could last a year or even longer. At times when there are no epidemics, the mask can be safely stored for 10 years without degradation.
But the crux of the matter is even safer than the old N95. If the original model filtered 95% of the harmful particles in the air, the ORM is prepared to reach the 99% threshold, like air conditioning filters, and maintain it for more than 12 hours.
"During the SARS epidemic, statistics indicated that 43% of the victims were sanitary," says Franoszek. "They are most aware of the dangers of the virus because they live it physically, in the first person. Then we got a lot of anecdotes from people taking off their masks saying they couldn't take them anymore."
The N95 respirators were not originally used in hospitals —they were more likely to be seen in construction - but they began to appear in the health sector in the early nineties during a resurgence of tuberculosis, but were never designed to be comfortable or to withstand hard work. The new ORM, by contrast, is made of soft silicone, which makes it much more comfortable and easy to use, fleeing the complicated adjustments of the N95, which required training just to put it on.
A pleated filter increases airflow, making it more breathable while protecting both the user and the people around you. In total, the mask addresses 26 of the 28 recommendations of the government's report on the improvement of respirators, in addition to proposing a redesign to comply with the remaining 2 - to be able to wear a contaminated mask without infection and be transparent—.